Before I left my bed in the morning, little Adèle came running in to tell me that the great horse-chestnut at the bottom of the orchard had been struck by lightning in the night, and half of it split away.
Chapter 23 · Narrator
Context
The morning after Rochester's proposal, Adèle wakes Jane with news that the great chestnut tree in the orchard—the tree under which Rochester proposed—has been split by lightning during the night's storm.
Analysis
The chestnut tree's splitting occurs offstage, reported secondhand by a child, which keeps it from feeling heavy-handed. Yet the detail 'half of it split away' is precise and ominous: the tree isn't destroyed but divided, mirroring the fracture that will soon be revealed in Rochester's life (his hidden marriage). The timing matters—the strike happens during the night of the proposal, as if nature registers a transgression before Jane even knows one exists.
Essay Tip
Use this to argue that Brontë employs symbolic events (like the lightning strike) not as allegory but as structural irony—the reader doesn't yet know why the split tree is significant, but its division on this specific night creates a pattern that will retrospectively feel inevitable once Bertha is revealed.